COAL ROYALTIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1942, Page 4

COAL ROYALTIES

ABOLISHED IN BRITAIN STATE CONTROL OVER ALL DEPOSITS. HIGHER PRICE FOLLOWS WAGE INCREASE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 1. The payment of royalties to owners of coal-producing land will end today. These royalties have been paid for 374 years and have yielded a total of £1,000,000,000. The Government today will pay out £66,450,000 to about 4,000.000 royalty owners and become the sole landlord. The mines are still in the hands of private companies, though recent legislation gives the State some control for the duration of the war. ’The Coal Act of 1938, by which all unworked coal in Britain passes out of the hands of private people and comes under the control of the Coal Commission is operative from today. Proposals of this nature had been debated for about half a century, but it was not till 1938‘that a statutory body was set up to buy all the unworked coal and take possession on July 1, 1942, and from then on to be landlord of the coal industry. The Coal Commission has been working for years assessing values and fixing prices to be paid to the coal owners. It is estimated that there are 200,000,000,000 tons of unworked coal in Britain.

The price of coal is being increased by 3s a ton from Friday, following the rise in miners’ wages.